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Shite in Miniature II


Split_Pin

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3 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

I subsequently bought a MIB burgundy one earlier this year together with the 7 series. I think it was from a shiter. Anyway, I was delighted with it and the finish is good on this one.

Yeah, that was one of mine. It was really nice, but it was a surprise for me to realise that despite the nostalgia tug, I don't feel as drawn to the larger Matchbox stuff from my childhood era as readily as I do to Corgi - yet for the smaller stuff, it's the other way around.

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1 hour ago, Datsuncog said:

Yeah, that was one of mine. It was really nice, but it was a surprise for me to realise that despite the nostalgia tug, I don't feel as drawn to the larger Matchbox stuff from my childhood era as readily as I do to Corgi - yet for the smaller stuff, it's the other way around.

Pretty much the same here, I never much cared for Corgi Juniors the way I liked small Matchbox, and for a reason I still can't pin down big Corgis spoke to me in a way Superkings don't, as much as I loved my gold XJ6 & caravan. Also, evidently like yourself, I find I haven't the time or increasingly the inclination to fuck about with diecasts (and I too have a slightly embarrassing surplus situation, although mine is secreted all over the fucking place..) 

I'd certainly like to express my thanks to you  for Tat Friday though, whilst it must have eaten up an inordinate amount of your time it certainly was appreciated by me and other complete strangers from the internet. The proportion of stuff in my cabinet, resto pile (probably never get through it..) and surplus stash which originated in Belfast on assorted Friday mornings is almost embarrassing. But life moves on. I hope you rediscover your spark soon, be it diecast, vinyl or whatever. 

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2 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

firing up the work laptop to discover what fresh hell has occurred overnight.

When I stopped enjoying everything that I used to, it didn't take me long to realise that it was work. The same place and twice. I still despise the organisation and everyone I worked with there because of it.

They actually did me a favour by making me redundant after all I did for them though, because the current place I work is much more respectful and my role is challenging but not hectic.

All good things must come to an end and maybe this is time for Tat Friday. It was an institution and we've all given a lot of models and toys a new life, especially the buses but it's simply not fair on you.

Feel free to fire me a PM if you need a sounding board man.

I've really neglected my diecast hobby this year,  mainly because I've been mucking about with Cavaliers. Once the latter is tucked up in the garage for winter I'm vowing to get back to it in some form or another.

My son wanted to sell all his Disney Pixar Cars so I categorised them into batches, films 1, 2 and 3 and they all sold within 2 days.

This rekindled my interest in my own diecast collection again and I rotated a fair few between the loft and my shelves. 

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I’ve neglected the old diecast hobby lately as well. Partly it’s been time, the other aspect being the lack of supply in Tesco. For once though some of the prices seem more acceptable on EBay,  factor in the fuel getting to the car boot and you aren’t far off what it costs to buy a good example on eBay. 

Ive pretty much stopped bothering with buying job lots or the car boots simply because the prices are optimistic. In a weird way I enjoyed diecast best when it was picking up some Matchbox at 50p each or a decent 1:36 Corgi for a couple of quid.

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22 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

My son wanted to sell all his Disney Pixar Cars so I categorised them into batches, films 1, 2 and 3 and they all sold within 2 days.

Oh bugger!  I wish I'd known, I'm in need of a Tex Dinoco (I think that's his name); the gold Cadillac.  He's a Coupe deVille, 75 or 76 so slightly younger than Huggy, but I'm sure I could work out a satisfactory conversion.  If anybody sees one at tat-box prices, I want it!

Now then... I said I would have to shoot some pics, didn't I?  Here (not the new pics, not yet!) is the A35 van, "before."

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And here's the Corvette I recently finished; again this is the before pic, when I still thought I might want to sell it... (front right of shot)

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Well you've seen how the Austin turned out, so here's the Vette...

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And with an unrestored example...

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Here's the Lancia, as done as it can be at the moment...

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And here's a parcel that came today, mint in mint box, 99p plus postage!

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So let's go chasing a comparably-scaled Corgi Aston Martin...

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17 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Yeah, I did take a turn over to the market this morning - though there wasn't very much new or of interest on the stalls, in terms of diecast.

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Most of this is detritus from June and July, with a few holdovers from last week.

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With a little tidying up, a well-used Lesney Ford D-Series was reunited with the correct trailer...

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...as was a glazing-challenged GMC with its train of Fruehauf grain trailers.

Two ropey Corgi Chittys and a so-so Superkings Camping Cruiser may or may not be the same ones that were kicking about a few months back.

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Really old stuff was limited to just these three, still looking for a new home:

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Zylmex and Tri-ang F1 cars had popped up here before, too:

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Lesney carry-case trays held these, which we've also seen lately:

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Again, nothing really that's particularly sought after here, probably.

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This big Tri-ang Skip Truck was a new arrival, mind:

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Though the Corgis (and Brumm) behind were pretty familiar.

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The filthy Days Gone desk set remains, as does the NYPD Model T paddywagon (marked on the base as made by 'National Motor Mint', not ERTL as I previously thought):

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This Tuf-Toys artic tickled the old nostalgia buds, mind - the sort of thing stocked by discount stores back in the '80s, as I recall.

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There was also - for the first time in a while - a genuine 50p tat box, with a variety of old and new stuff within:

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Despite some spirited hoking, I couldn't quite find anything worth extracting, though.

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A Majorette Corvette and Matchbox Nissan Turbo Z-car were in tolerable shape, but not something I'm looking for - and probably not on anyone else's wishlist either.

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Plenty of playworn recent-ish Hot Wheels too, but no better or worse than charity shop/ car boot finds.

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This ABC Hong Kong bus of some description (not even going to hazard a guess) that had been unfortunately filleted of its engine and front suspension had also made it into the 50p box, but not really a display item in this shonky shape.

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Nothing much on any of the other stalls either - Paddy is continuing his lone fight to boost the values of scuffed Chinese no-name diecast (though he has now sold a fair bit of the older Lesney stuff):

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He also has a huge number of b&w photographs of what appear to be merchant marine vessels from around 1920 to 1970, which no doubt would tickle some maritime historian's fancy.

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There must be hundreds of photos in there, but I'll bet he's looking a king's ransom for them.

Charity stall had no models today either, though some of the Haynes manuals were undoubtedly shite-worthy:

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So that was that - and no, I didn't buy anything this week either.

To be honest, these days I do it more just to get out of the house for an hour or so; nod to some of the stallholders, buy some proper bakery pancakes for weekend breakfasts, maybe get some fruit and veg, and then grab a coffee from Phil at Drop Hopper before heading home and firing up the work laptop to discover what fresh hell has occurred overnight.

I guess it's the remains of a sort-of routine I had from 'the before-times', when Friday mornings tended to be the least pressured time of the week and often allowed me a couple of hours of frivolity to dick about with diecast, because that's when the Minister was away doing constituency stuff, and there was rarely anyone else in the office to notice. If I played my cards right during the week in terms of completing upcoming briefings and correspondence cases, then Friday could be spent just taking occasional calls and responding to emails, in between cropping pictures and researching Lesney colour variations. It was nice.

Sadly, a mixture of working from home (12 miles from the market; half an hour each way) while trying to cover the additional workloads of two other staff members who left last year without being replaced (including taking on responsibility for their staff) has made the usual Friday jolly increasingly untenable; or rather, just about tenable but a lot less jolly - and I'm painfully aware that this has come across in the tone of the Friday Tat Market reports.

I have, at least, replaced my smashed phone with a secondhand one, as trying to crop pics and write posts with a third of the screen blank and the rest striated with cracks became pretty tiresome - especially when Chrome would go and erase a nearly-finished post for the third time.

And it has to be said, the pretty cavalier attitude of many at the market about mask wearing and social distancing has made me think twice about hanging around St George's for any length of time - it's a bit galling to hear people prattling on about "nice to be back to normal" when NI's weekly death rate from COVID is back to where it was in February, and five people I know have tested positive this week alone - two of whom are in hospital, and one now in intensive care. So sipping a leisurely indoor coffee while I crop pics and supply trenchant commentary about The Nemesis' sartorial choices seems unwise these days. Annoying, but there it is.

Incidentally, the Trainer King was absent today. Hope he's okay. 

Hey, it's no-one's fault, but I've only recently come to the sticky realisation that this is all quite typical of the way I operate - take something I enjoy, and then turn it into some sort of faux-altruistic obligation to others, rather than just enjoy it myself for whatever it is. And then I end up stressing myself the fuck out over letting people down, which results in me making mistakes, which just results in things spiralling more and more.

It's nothing to do with diecast collecting, intrinsically, lest anyone think it's a result of this thread; it's absolutely not, I've driven myself to the brink before with music, with photography, with writing. It's an unfortunate and destructive trait, stretching back many years, where I seem to feel undeserving of anything that gives me pleasure, so I have to turn it into a chore whereby it's other people who are benefitting, rather than me, and somehow that's okay. Until I perceive myself to be failing and thereby letting people down, which I've been doing a lot lately (wrong orders, lost orders, unable to secure items requested at target price etc), and then I become increasingly silent and avoidant (which you'll probably have also noticed), until eventually... the whole shonky set-up just nosedives into the ground.

It's a depressingly familiar scenario to me now. I'm hoping that the act of identifying what I tend to do, and why I tend to do it, will be a starting point to finding ways to break out of the same old cycle.

But while personal growth and self-help is all great and everything, I also have a wardrobe literally crammed with boxes of diecast that I will need to deal with, and has been causing no small amount of friction with MrsDC, who's had to put up with my hoarding ways for rather longer than reasonable. Indeed, it was the forced realisation that there seemed to be a tiny car, lorry or fire engine on just about every flat surface throughout the house that kinda brought all this to a head a few weeks back.

Some of the wardrobe boxes are 'claimed' items for forum members, others are paid-up but not dispatched (and I really need to wrap and post these - apologies to @egg, will get yours away this weekend). Don't get me wrong, these boxes don't represent that much of an issue and it's not the fault of any of you lot - the vast majority are my own magpie-like acquisitions.

I intended to have another clearance sale over the summer, but that didn't happen, and I also have a heap of unclaimed stuff earmarked for eBay following previous sale events, which need to have decisions made on them. At the moment, the most likely thing to happen is seal them away in the attic for a while, and try to come back to them early next year. The thought of dragging them out to photograph them all now gives me the horrors. 

I think I just need a bit of a break. I'd thought it was maybe the forum itself making me feel low - the whole 'free speech/ Modgate II' (or is it III?) palaver a few weeks back made me feel rather despondent and on-edge for a bit, but I dunno if it's just that. I dunno. As some members were swift to point out, this is a car forum, not a self-help group. Strange that these people tend to spend the vast majority of their time on the forum screaming about political stuff that would perhaps go better on Twitter or Facebook and never mentioning cars, but hey ho...

I used to absolutely love Saturday mornings, where I'd get up earlyish and spend a quiet hour updating my Tat Spreadsheet and putting everyone's models from the previous day's market away in their respective boxes. Lately, the joy just hasn't been there - and again, that's on me. But I've reached a weird point where nothing seems to be giving me much in the way of joy, for so many reasons both internal and external, so it's probably better for me to stop, do some digging around to find out what's making me feel this way, and then move forward again differently rather than keep running myself further into the ground. I'd like to get the mojo back. But... just not keep accelerating past the point of enjoyment, and on to running myself ragged fretting about doing everything wrong.

Anyway... I've completely lost where I was going with all this, so I'd probably better post it - so that I've got time to scuttle back and delete it all later, once I've re-read it...

But that's where we're at tonight.

There will be happier Fridays. I do still believe that.

Take care, kids.

Dude tat-friday has been great and has provided happiness to a lot of people so you can take great comfort in that. I loved sitting in the office looking at the junk you were perusing.

I get what you mean about doing it for others. I have bought stuff off you in the past and really appreciate it but if it's becoming too much of a burden at the moment just press pause on it, people won't mind.

If you do end up going just take some pictures and do a little write up when you are home for us to enjoy maybe. I would still love to read about it. 

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1 hour ago, junkyarddog said:

Picked up this Kidco key car yesterday. 

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Not really my thing, so if anyone has anything they would like to trade for it shout,if not I'm happy to keep it.

Unusual to find one still with the key.

 

 

 

The key is for a different one, which I have somewhere. My pal had the fire chief one though, back in the early 1980s.

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On 31/08/2021 at 19:45, Dick Longbridge said:

Mystery Machine - plastic construction. One of the pins on the rear fold out section is missing but still works fine. 27cm long. Push down the front and it's motors across the floor! £2 

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Spotted some more at the weekend 

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My local thrift store throws all small sized toy cars  in a big wooden box, and lazily prices all of them at 1 euro each. Which means some are massively overpriced, and some are reasonable. Most recent purchase there is this Silver Shadow, paint isn't great but apart from that I think it is quite lovely!

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On 8/23/2021 at 2:40 PM, flat4alfa said:

- two early-seventies Tonka POWERED SCRAMBLERS have met for the first time since the factory line.  Dolly popped over to take a look.

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Both motors are borked though, making me wonder what to do with them...  Discarding the comedy stunted length, width-wise they measure to around 1:33 scale.

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The rain stopped for a weekend for once and during the busy happenings, some paint was applied, some glazing was polished and some springs and cogs were attended to

Yes, the Tonka QUICK GRIP (Ford Maverick) had a tidy-up.  It was decided that there was too much green in the fleet.

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The GROUND POUNDER AMC Gremlin also popped over for a look with its now-repaired pull-back motor

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Ken wasn't remotely interested

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On 01/09/2021 at 09:57, flat4alfa said:

I know of the Cortina III in Police and Fire colours

Oh you mean this one?

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Unfortunately all is not as it seems, having A pillar damage and no boot or bonnet

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Still, it's not beyond repair.

Other arrivals today include a Guisval Merc SL missing a rear axle

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Cute Tootsietoy Honda that's suffered an acid attack

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Tidy Zylmex Vega

20210906_171234.thumb.jpg.68f208974ae0e3bfbe22fef9c3985420.jpgThe Beetle from the cartoon-like Polistil range (the one I really wanted)

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And a pretty decent Corgi Rockets MK1 Escort in FEV 1H guise - same seller had the Bond version but it got too expensive for me

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There were some other oddities included but the sun's setting, the Mrs has gone shopping and there's cold beer in the fridge, so they can get photographed another time 

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A couple of parcels arrived today

Firstly this mixed lot from eBay20210906_184152.thumb.jpg.b6de512cfa6b64b4b256c80455e9fd34.jpg

These were the highlights for me20210906_183141.thumb.jpg.9c54d360778c2272a8698bbbd03f0f96.jpg

Matchbox Field Car & Corgi Rockets Capri have some extra stickers,hopefully these will come off20210906_183259.thumb.jpg.8ca8a4f73f1be005d8eafdeb8c8bc037.jpg

Yatming truck looks like a Mercedes from the side,but has the face of a Ford D Series😂.Polistil Citroen CX is missing the rear bumper20210906_183244.thumb.jpg.ea245062748b672ca82ab6a67862dba8.jpg

I also got another Streetka model from FB Marketplace.This took over 2 weeks as the seller 1st sent me a packet of cable ties by mistake(& asked me if I wanted to buy them🤔),& then went away for a week.It was worth it in the end though20210906_183730.thumb.jpg.06f312bcdd673bb33e63599177365b8a.jpg

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